Sunday, 20 September 2009

Everything about Muse has grown big over the past years: their sound grew bigger, their shows grew bigger and their fanbase got bigger. So where would it end? They didn't stop at their last album but tried to make their latest one the biggest of all.Muse - The Resistance (Ronald Says 6 out of 10)When I saw their last tour I was wondering where they would go next. Could they go even bigger as they hinted themselves? This seemed impossible. I thought it would be great if the next step would actually be back to basics again. But they shot for bigger instead.

The album opener "Uprising" isn't bad all. A typical Muse song with some doctor Who sounds. They have been digging into conspiracy theories a lot and this album is all about that and can be considered a concept album. This also reflects in the sometimes paranoia lyrics. Not really fancy lyrics but when you believe in those conspiracies you want to make sure the message gets across.

But then in song number two "Resistance" the band goes into hyperdrive and musical mode. The lyrics get more cheesy and the music sounds almost laughable at some points. It's all buffed up with strings and keys and they must really have thought that bigger is better. At ludicrous hyperspeed they fly into "United States of Eurasia" which has Queen written all over it. All subtlety is lost and they completely fly out of control with this Bohemian Rhapsody meets Cats.

And so it goes on this crazy space ship. "MK Ultra" is a more down to earth Muse tune and can please me more. Then the ship heads into a symphony "Exogenesis" in three parts. It's a both admirable and impressive part of the album and singer Matthew Bellamy shows once again that he's a gifted piano player and composer. Still it feels lightly out of place and too much. Like the whole album it's going in all directions and seems to be all over the place.

Muse was groing towards this all along and it seems the band feel they have finally climaxed. But it seems they have either climaxed prematurely or have overdone themselves. In this case bigger is not better and one can only hope that next time they do it right or may consider going small again.